Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Stranger Danger

It can be difficult as a parent to foster childhood optimism in
your offspring while also instilling a healthy level of wariness concerning
those that may wish to do them harm. Some might show their child a video or take
them to a class; but these tactics are for parents that are simply phoning it
in. Missouri resident Elizabeth Hupp wasn’t about to outsource the safety of
her 6 year-old son. So, along with the boy’s grandmother and aunt, she hatched
a scheme to make sure that her son didn’t become a statistic.

First, they recruited the assistance of the aunt’s 23
year-old coworker Nathan Firoved who agreed to kidnap and terrorize his colleague’s
nephew. As the young man exited the school bus one day, Nathan lured him into
his pickup. Once inside the vehicle, he bound the young man’s hands and feet
with plastic bags, threatened him with a gun, and informed him that he would “never
see his mommy again” and would be “nailed to the wall of a shed.” He then
covered the boy’s face with a jacket and drove the traumatized child to his
mother’s basement.

Once there, and still unable to see, his pants were removed
by his aunt who informed him that he would then be sold into sexual slavery. After
what is believed to be several hours, the blindfold was removed and the young
man was taken upstairs where his family revealed the ruse and “lectured him
about stranger danger.” The child subsequently revealed the events to school
officials who reported the matter to law enforcement. The mother has been
charged with felony kidnapping and abuse of a child. The grandmother, aunt, and
aunt’s co-worker have been charged with felonious restraint. The family members
involved told investigators “their primary intent was to educate the victim and
felt they did nothing wrong.”

Clockwise from top left: Mom, Nathan, Aunt Rose, Grandma

There were two crucial moments of human interaction that occurred
in this case. The first was the moment that the mother shared her idea with the
boy’s grandmother and aunt. Was there any discussion? Did the mother invite
feedback? Should we give these two other women the benefit of the doubt and
assume that they talked the boy’s mother out of a worse idea? It is plausible that
such a terrible idea can grow and fester within the confines of a solitary,
troubled mind but the fact that it survived a family conference should give all
of us pause. Perhaps the exchange proceeded this way:

Mom, you know how you, me, and Aunt Rose were talking about
how junior was too nice to people….

Yes.

Well, I was thinking we could get that registered sex
offender down the street to take him camping over the holiday weekend.

Honey, I think that your heart is in the right place but
camping seems a little extreme. Why don’t we hire some random dude to kidnap him
while brandishing a firearm?

You’re right mom. I was just getting carried away. Thanks for
being my voice of reason.

The second crucial moment of interaction was when the aunt
approached Mr. Firoved at work and asked if he could spare an afternoon to abduct her nephew. Was he paid for this? Did he feel obligated because she
had covered one of his shifts the week before? When did it become awkward to
decline the opportunity to kidnap a minor? I wonder if he was even the first
person the aunt approached about this. Can you imagine some guy in the break
room telling Rose, “that’s not really my cup of tea but why don’t you ask
Nathan; his Redbox code didn’t work and he is free tonight?”

Regardless of how you feel about Missouri’s Amateur Scared
Straight program, you have to admire the participants’ unshakeable faith in the
legitimacy of their actions. Even after being apprehended they are still
willing to project the “I don’t know what all the fuss is about” attitude to the
media. I shudder to think that these people are registered voters.

I hope this young man is adopted by a kind family who
encourage and nurture him. And wouldn’t it be a bitter irony when he finally
finds happiness in the arms of the very people his family tried to warn him
about: strangers.